Thursday, October 18, 2012

In early 1924 Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel published a piece called Signifigance of Yeshiva in America, meant to appear, I am sure, in as many media sources as would print it. Here is the article as printed in Newark's Jewish Chronicle, February 8, 1924.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

This little piece, which is from the Jewish Chronicle via the JTA newswire, states that a man in Warsaw tried to divorce his wife on grounds that she did not dress tznius. She wore a sheitel, but it was cut in a 'boyish bob.' And her sleeves were too short. No dice, ruled the rabbi.

And in the tarte de-sasrei department, here is another JTA piece from 1924, recounting how an antisemitic French newspaper declared that the new fashion of the Flapper's bob is a Jewish conspiracy modeled on the sheitel and that head-shaving for gentile women was no doubt soon in store. I guess the aforementioned rav agreed with the Libre Parole.

This is Newark's Jewish Chronicle's account of a pogrom in Radin in 1922, and how it personally affected the Chofetz Chaim, who was dragged outside from his sickbed, and his pillows stolen by marauders.

Here's a couple of interesting excerpts from the Jewish Chronicle - of Newark, New Jersey - from Nov. 16, 1928. The article was called "Lithuanian Jews Have Rich Culture As Their Heritage."

It also points out that "Lithuania, it is important to remember, is the only country in Europe where that are no assimilationists, so that it is no wonder that Zionism should have a stronghold there. . . . Today, despite enormous economic handicaps, Lithuanian Jewry retains its intellectual morale. It is the only country in the world where 95 per cent of the Jewish children are educated in Jewish schools, where they receive not only a Jewish but a general education as well." It also points out that 800 boys and girls study in Kovno University.

Friday, October 05, 2012

Here's a nice little interesting pamphlet published in Frankfurt AM in May 1805, publicizing the cherem on a man called Lemle Geiger's plan for a bootlegged version of Heidenheim's machzor, by order of the Hafla'ah, Frankfurt's Chief Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz (and seconded by various rabbis of other cities), complete with fiery curses. (link)

For more - or actually, less - on this fascinating episode, see p. 133 in Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, Volume 44, in 'Materialen zu einer Biographie Wolf Heidenheims' by Louis Lewin (the rabbi, not the expert on peyote).